Battle of Genesis
| result = Federation victory Rescue of Spock | combatant1 = United Federation of Planets | commander1 = Admiral James T. Kirk Captain J.T. Esteban † Lieutenant Saavik | strength1 = | losses1 = All but one Grissom crewmember | combatant2 = Klingon Empire | commander2 = Commander Kruge † | strength2 = Kruge's Bird-of-Prey | losses2 = Kruge Torg All but one crewmember from the Klingon Bird-of-Prey Kruge's Klingon monster dog }} The Battle of Genesis was an incident in Klingon and Federation history. This confrontation took place in 2285 and involved the crew of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, under the command of Kruge, entering conflict with Starfleet forces in orbit and on the surface of the planet . Although a brief space battle was fought between the Klingon Bird-of-Prey and the , the encounter was mainly a battle of wills between Kruge and the Enterprise s commanding officer, James T. Kirk. The incident resulted in the deaths of Kirk's son, David Marcus, and all of Kruge's crew except for one officer, as well as the destruction of the Enterprise, the Bird-of-Prey and the Federation science vessel . ( ) Prelude In relative privacy aboard the Enterprise during the final moments of the Battle of the Mutara Nebula, Captain Spock quickly mind melded with the starship's chief medical officer, Doctor Leonard McCoy. Spock thereby left his katra in McCoy's brain, unbeknownst to McCoy, prior to Spock sacrificing his own life in order to save the ship from the detonation of the Genesis Device, a terraforming invention that instantly created the Genesis Planet. After holding a funeral for Spock, the Enterprise left his body behind on the planet's surface. ( ; } The Klingons were highly interested in the Genesis Planet, so Kruge sent Valkris, who was romantically involved with him, on a mission to acquire data about it. After Valkris obtained the information and hired a merchant vessel, she rendezvoused with Kruge's Bird-of-Prey. When he discovered that she had viewed the data, however, Kruge regretfully destroyed the merchant craft, considering that as his only option, which she honorably accepted. Destroying her vessel, the Bird-of-Prey then engaged its cloaking device as it proceeded to the Federation neutral zone. When the Enterprise returned to Spacedock, Admiral Kirk learned that the starship was to be decommissioned due to its extreme age and that the Genesis Planet was now declared forbidden territory by the Federation, even though the Enterprise crew had hoped to return there. The subject had become a galactic controversy that the Federation Council was yet to make policy about. Meanwhile, Kruge and two of his officers, Torg and Maltz, watched the Genesis data – a recording presented by Admiral Kirk – which impressed Kruge's men though Kruge himself regarded Genesis as an insidious Federation plot and "ultimate power". Even while emissaries from the Klingon Empire were negotiating for peace with the Federation, Kruge secretly planned to head to the Genesis Planet in an attempt to seize the secret of how Genesis was done. Klingon presence in that region would be a violation of the treaty between the Federation and the Klingon Empire as well as an act of war. Shortly after Kruge witnessed the Genesis data, starship Grissom, on stardate 8210.3, arrived at the Genesis Planet, there to study the newly created world. On Earth, Spock's father, Sarek, revealed to Kirk alone that Spock had had a katra, which the pair determined McCoy was now the keeper of. Sarek instructed Kirk to return to the Genesis Planet, so that Spock's body could be retrieved and then reunited with his katra at Mount Seleya on . An away team from the Grissom, comprised of Saavik and David Marcus, beamed down to explore the Genesis Planet. However, accessing the planet from Earth was made much more difficult. Though Kirk appealed to Fleet Admiral Morrow that he be permitted to return to the planet, the Federation Council had, by now, proclaimed that only the science team be allowed to go there. McCoy tried to informally arrange transport to the Genesis Planet, which resulted in him getting himself arrested by Federation Security. Gathering most of his senior staff, Kirk broke McCoy out of holding and stole the Enterprise, crippling the via sabotage in the process of escaping from Spacedock. Nevertheless, the Enterprise still had battle damage from having fought at the battle in the Mutara Nebula. As the Enterprise started to race to the Genesis Planet, Saavik and David Marcus found, on the planet's surface, a young boy who seemed Vulcan. The pair of Grissom officers believed he was the resurrected Spock and that the Genesis wave had caused Spock's s to regenerate. Though Saavik asked for all three of them to be beamed back aboard the Grissom, the ship's captain, J.T. Esteban, was adamant that proper precautions be taken. The Grissom, still in orbit of Genesis, consequently tried to request permission from Starfleet, but the transmission was jammed by Kruge's cloaked Bird-of-Prey. The Federation craft initially couldn't identify the source of the jamming signal but could detect that it had just begun to emit an energy surge. ( ) Provocation Kruge's Bird-of-Prey, positioned aft of the Grissom, subsequently decloaked, much to Captain Esteban's shock. Aboard the Klingon vessel, Kruge ordered his gunner to target the Grissom s engine only. Esteban meanwhile notified Saavik that their ship was under attack and told his helm officer to standby to take evasive action. The Bird-of-Prey then fired a single photon torpedo at the Grissom, which entirely destroyed the vessel, causing it to explode. The assault on the Grissom was considered by the Bird-of-Prey's gunner to have been "a lucky shot" but it angered Kruge to the point of killing the gunner, frustrated that he hadn't had an opportunity to take prisoners from the ship's crew. Him declaring that this had been his intention inspired Torg to report to Kruge that there were members of the Grissom s crew on the planet's surface, news Kruge welcomed with delight. All the while, Saavik had been trying to reestablish communications with the Grissom, though she eventually speculated to David Marcus that the ship had seemingly been eliminated in an enemy attack and that the assailants would soon come after them. The Enterprise s skeleton crew was not yet aware of the Grissom s destruction, but did determine that there were no vessels pursuing them. Kruge beamed to the planet's surface with two other Klingon officers. Elsewhere on the planet, David Marcus divulged to Saavik that he had used dangerously unstable protomatter in the Genesis matrix. They realized that both the planet and the young Spock were aging in surges, which, in the case of the planet, meant Genesis had mere hours before it would destroy itself. Saavik and David Marcus also began to detect the Klingons approaching, though the pair weren't able to identify who the newcomers were. Saavik was about to leave to meet them when David stopped her and left to confront them himself, armed with her phaser. When the Enterprise picked up that Starfleet was trying to hail the Grissom but that there was no response, Kirk wondered if the Grissom would respond kindly to the arrival of the Enterprise or fire on the ship. The Enterprise started, therefore, attempting to contact the Grissom too but soon arrived at the Genesis sector itself, at which time the Enterprise came out of warp and continued at impulse. It was identified by the Bird-of-Prey as a "Federation battle cruiser" but hadn't, in turn, scanned the Klingon ship, so Torg, commanding the Bird-of-Prey, ordered that his craft be cloaked. This took place, although Pavel Chekov, onboard the Enterprise, felt certain that he had seen, very briefly, a scout-class vessel in the area. Considering that this may have actually been the Grissom, Kirk began trying to hail the ship personally. On the surface of Genesis, Saavik and a now-teenaged Spock were asleep when the Klingon away team found them. The two Klingons who were accompanying Kruge wakened the Vulcan pair suddenly and forced them to sit on the ground alongside David Marcus. Having come a long way in his quest for Genesis, Kruge was disappointed with the quality of the prisoners. Saavik respectfully told him that Genesis was a failed experiment, which he highly doubted. He threatened her that, unless she disclosed to him the secret details of Genesis' composition, she would be painfully tortured, this despite the fact that she had claimed to know nothing relevant to his objective. Even though Kruge had directed no interruptions be made to the Klingons' away mission, Torg disobeyed this command in order to alert him to the Enterprise s arrival. While Kirk persisted with endeavoring to contact the Grissom, Kruge beamed back up to the still-cloaked Bird-of-Prey, arriving to find that the Enterprise was 5000 kellicams away and closing at impulse; the tactical situation pleased him greatly. Whereas Chekov searched the vicinity using a scanner and wasn't able to find any other craft, Sulu displayed the planet and adjacent starfield on the Enterprise s viewscreen and, as Kruge made last-minute preparations for the Bird-of-Prey to fire on the Enterprise, finally caught sight, along with Kirk, of a visual distortion near the planet. The Bird-of-Prey waited while the Enterprise entered firing range. At that moment, Kruge ensured that the new gunner definitely knew to target only the ship's engine. On the Enterprise s bridge, Kirk and Sulu theorized that the distortion could be the energy surge of a cloaked ship. The admiral reacted by ordering that the Enterprise go to red alert and that all power be diverted to the weapons systems. Guessing that the enemy craft would have to decloak before it could fire, however, Kirk didn't raise the Starfleet vessel's shields yet. ( ) The space battle Immediately after the Bird-of-Prey decloaked and started arming torpedoes, the Enterprise shot a pair of photon torpedoes, one after the other, from its fore torpedo launcher. Both torpedoes hit home on the bottom of the Bird-of-Prey's hull. The first hit the ship's bridge section whereas the second struck the vessel further aft. The attack knocked the vessel out of control, and as it slowly spun away from directly facing the Enterprise, the resultant scene of mayhem and destruction was palpable on the Klingon vessel's bridge, where Kruge's pet monster dog died as a consequence. While the Bird-of-Prey came about to face the Starfleet craft again (the Klingon vehicle channeling emergency power to its thrusters), the Enterprise, at Kirk's instruction, tried to raise its shields, but due to the automation system being overloaded, this proved unsuccessful. Enterprise chief engineer Montgomery Scott complained that the combat was unexpected, implying that he hadn't had time to ready the ship. Once the Bird-of-Prey righted itself again, it retaliated with a photon torpedo which pummeled the Enterprise s port warp nacelle, setting off an electrical chain reaction. This caused an explosion on the bridge, where the entire deck briefly tilted to the port side, causing Kirk to lose his balance and be tossed against the bridge's handrail. In response to all the room's lights going out, emergency power was restored at his command. Kirk then ordered that the Enterprise return fire, though the final effects of the chain reaction knocked out the automation center, making the phasers and helm inoperable, effectively ending the brief space battle. ( ) Heated negotiations Although the Bird-of-Prey's emergency torpedo tube was ready for firing, Kruge was surprised that the Starfleet ship hadn't already destroyed them, since the Enterprise outgunned the Klingon vessel ten-to-one. Kirk sent a message to the Bird-of-Prey, from which Kruge recognized him as the presenter of the Genesis data. During the transmission, the admiral threatened to destroy the Klingon ship and kill its crew unless they surrendered, but Kruge sensed he was bluffing. Kruge replied with a defiant message of his own, revealing that he had taken three prisoners on the planet below, whom he threatened to execute individually if Kirk didn't surrender. The Klingon commander allowed Kirk to speak to both Saavik and David Marcus, who communicated their situation to him. David also advised Kirk not to surrender to Kruge, doubtful that the Klingons would kill them, since Genesis was really a failure. Kruge assured Kirk of his honesty and demonstrated this by deciding to have one of the prisoners executed. The chosen victim was about to be Saavik when David intervened, preventing her death. He engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the executioner but was eventually stabbed to death by the Klingon. His death shocked and despaired Kirk. Kruge repeated his demand that Kirk surrender, to which the admiral finally acquiesced. Kirk asked for a minute to notify his crew, but Kruge instead granted him and his "gallant" crew two minutes. Despite believing that the Starfleet crew outnumbered the Klingons, Kruge demanded that Torg form a heavily armed boarding party with everyone who was left onboard the Bird-of-Prey apart from the commander himself, intending to commandeer the Enterprise and raid its memory banks of the knowledge about Genesis. Kirk arranged for Kruge to beam the Klingon officers aboard and promised not to resort to any "tricks". However, Kirk, Scott and Chekov then set the Enterprise 's auto-destruct sequence and hurried to the transporter room, from where they beamed to the planet surface moments before the band of Klingons were beamed into the same transporter room, surprised to find no-one occupying the vessel. On the bridge, Torg contacted Kruge and let him hear the computer voice pronouncing the countdown sequence. Their commander shouted for them to get out of the place but it was too late; the ship exploded with the Klingon team aboard, emotionally devastating Kruge. Kirk and his companions observed the destruction of the starship from the surface of Genesis, while the craft started to burn up in the planet's atmosphere. While Spock was agonizingly experiencing transformations that were related to his rapid aging and were linked to the destruction of the planet going on around him, he pushed one of his two captors through the air and the Klingon landed on the ground, dead. When Kirk got there with the rest of the skeleton crew from the doomed Enterprise, the other guard was shot by Kirk, brandishing a phaser, which knocked the Klingon warrior back and up into the air before he landed on the ground. After discussing Spock and the disintegrating planet with Saavik, Kirk picked up a Klingon communicator from the ground and contacted Kruge, pretending that the Enterprise had been destroyed accidentally and attempting to persuade Kruge to beam them up to the Bird-of-Prey. He instead beamed to the planet himself, armed with a Klingon disruptor, and had Kirk drop his phaser. The Starfleet officers except for Kirk and Spock were then beamed up to the Bird-of-Prey at Kruge's command. He refused to have Spock join them out of spite, because Kirk recommended this happening. Kirk and Kruge kept on arguing even as the planet continued to break up all around them. Kirk used that as a reason for them to collaborate with each other, but Kruge was insistent that he would prefer for them to die together. He was standing on a rock that suddenly raised up, which made him drop his communicator and propelled him at Kirk. They then physically fought each other, ending up on a rocky outcropping that partly gave way, under Kruge. As the Klingon commander hung from the edge of the cliff, Kirk attempted to persuade him to accept Kirk's help so he could pull him up. However, Kruge grabbed at Kirk and tried to pull him off the cliff. Kirk reacted by repeatedly kicking Kruge, declaring he had had enough of the Klingon commander, who Kirk proceeded to kick off the precipice; Kruge fell into a lava-filled pit far below. ( ) Aftermath As the planet was consumed by fire, Kirk used Kruge's communicator to have himself and Spock beamed up to the Klingon Bird-of-Prey by the only remaining member of the Klingon crew: Maltz. When, on the Bird-of-Prey's bridge, Maltz outright refused to cooperate, Kirk noted that he would continue the hostilities between the Starfleet and Klingon personnel by having him killed later. Chekov, Sulu, and Scott succeeded in flying the Bird-of-Prey, using its Klingon controls, away from the dying Genesis Planet. Having commandeered the Klingon ship, Kirk had the vessel head to Vulcan and admitted to the Klingon survivor that he had lied about killing him. On Vulcan's Mount Seleya, Spock's body and katra were reunified thanks to a Vulcan ceremony. Sarek deemed the costs Kirk had gone to, having lost his ship and his son in the battle, as considerable, though Kirk was convinced that he had been morally compelled to do what he had done; the actions that he and his fellow officers had carried out during this incident made it possible for them to ultimately be reunited with Spock. ( ) Background information This encounter forms most (but not all) of the storyline in the film . Harve Bennett was inspired to concoct the incident because the extraordinarily powerful Genesis Device had been introduced in the previous film, . He later recalled, "The whole idea of the Genesis planet and the fact that the same technology could also destroy every living thing on existing planets made me wonder, 'What would happen if the Klingons found out about this? " Both that idea and the notion that the Enterprise crew would undertake a mission to retrieve Spock's casket from the Genesis Planet, resulting in the difference of goals which, in the movie, is at the heart of the dispute, were obvious to Bennett. (Star Trek Movie Memories, hardcover ed., p. 158) Harve Bennett also rather easily chose for this confrontation to result in the death of David Marcus and the destruction of the Enterprise because he believed in balanced storytelling. It thus made sense to him that, in return for getting Spock back, Kirk lost two things, along the way, that were majorly important to him. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 120) When he came to direct Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Leonard Nimoy expected that portraying the effects involved in the battle – "with spaceships and planets exploding and, fire scenes and fights and people falling off cliffs and stuff like that," in his own words – would be the most difficult part for him making the movie. However, he ultimately found that no-one asked him about this aspect of creating the film. (The Making of the Trek Films, p. 42) The reason Ken Ralston chose to have the Grissom be destroyed with a relatively simple explosion was that he didn't want to overshadow the detonation of the Enterprise. "If we played all our best cards at the start, we'd have nothing left to show when it came time to blow up the ''Enterprise," he noted. (Cinefex, No. 18, p. 54) When Leonard Nimoy was considering Edward James Olmos for the role of Kruge, he expected the face-to-face confrontation between the Klingon character and Kirk would be the only time there might be a problem with faking Olmos' build as larger than it actually was. "''I thought that with creative angles, camera work and elevating Eddie on boxes, we could've done that fairly easily," stated Nimoy. (Star Trek Movie Memories, hardcover ed., p. 170) Using these methods to portray the fight turned out to be unnecessary, though, as Christopher Lloyd was cast for the part instead. Originally, the fight sequence on the Genesis Planet was to have involved massive boulders raising out of the ground, with Kirk and Kruge brawling on the tops of them and jumping from one rock to the other. (Star Trek Movie Memories, hardcover ed., p. 183) Harve Bennett felt that, by complaining about the Enterprise s destruction but not about David's death, some people were prioritizing these in the opposite order to what he thought they should. One such person who criticized the decision to have the Enterprise be annihilated was Gene Roddenberry. He would have preferred to have the vessel carry out a saucer separation and for the saucer section to have thereafter been destroyed, as he suspected that would also have been symbolic of the reunifying aspects at the end of the film's story. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 120) However, the death of David Marcus and the scuttling of the Enterprise took Kirk actor William Shatner by surprise and he found them to be highly effective consequences of the battle. (Star Trek Movie Memories, hardcover ed., p. 159) He commented, "I thought the loss of the ''Enterprise and David's death were very clever devices used to create drama in a situation .... So, two elements that were expendable, David and the Enterprise, were killed off because nothing else could be killed off." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, pp. 120-121) Shatner did, though, have misgivings about the Klingon battle itself, feeling that, in the first draft script, it came too suddenly and didn't build on any foreshadowing or expectation which had been established as the story progressed, though he soon worked out his issues with the screenplay with Harve Bennett and Leonard Nimoy. (Star Trek Movie Memories'', hardcover ed., pp. 160 & 161) A photograph of Leonard Nimoy directing the hostage situation portion of this incident was included in the Picard family album (created for ) but never appeared on screen. Category:Conflicts